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Detroit, MI

This submission reflects this organization's contribution to the climate effort, representative of their current actions and commitments as well as the ways in which they intend to step up and collaborate with others.

Detroit, MI's Climate Action Contribution

Climate Action Commitments

Current Climate Actions Detroit, MI Is Taking:

Sign the Chicago Climate Charter

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held the North American Climate Summit in December 2017. Mayors gathered for the Summit were invited to make commitments to move forward with significant emissions reductions. Signing the Charter, you can pledge to move forward a comprehensive climate agenda and get support from your peers tackling similar challenges.

Replace fleet vehicles and buses that run on fossil fuels with vehicles that run on electricity

Electric fleet vehicles, especially buses, have a range of benefits that make them an excellent investment for local government use. Cities are coming together to spur innovation amongst manufacturers and use their collective purchasing power to drive down cost.

Increase energy efficiency of local government operations, such as buildings, street lighting, and water or wastewater plants

Energy efficiency is the best way to save taxpayer money and cut climate pollution right now. The average building wastes about a third of the energy it uses. Consider implementing a strategic energy management plan for all major operations.

Increase rates of walking, cycling and public transit through means accessible to all residents

In many communities, the transportation sector is the largest share of their pollution and getting people to use alternative modes of transit to the personal vehicle comes with a myriad of benefits, not only cutting greenhouse gases.

Give all residents in my community, especially those underrepresented or of marginalized groups, a voice in setting policy and action plans

Plans, strategies, and their implementation should include the input and priorities of the community. Having your residents’ support and involvement will lead to better long term solutions. Simply holding an open public hearing is not sufficient for the inclusion of all residents. Many methods exist for successful community engagement.

Set a goal for emissions reduction equal to or greater than the US goal under the Paris Climate Agreement (26-28% by 2025)

We all know the best way to measure, and actually achieve success, is to set a goal. Making that goal inline with or stronger than the U.S. nationally determined contribution under Paris signals that local governments are doing their part. Hundreds of cities and counties across the U.S. see an emissions reduction target of this level ambitious but doable.

Disclosure of your climate targets, emissions profile, and actions on a transparent platform is important for accountability to your residents and is increasingly necessary to access tools and financial resources.

New Climate Actions Detroit, MI Commits To Take:

Work with energy utilities to increase renewable energy provided to residents and businesses

Going beyond the local government’s own operations to make renewable energy available to your community is a challenging, but critical step that means working with utilities, state government, and your residents. Clean, renewable bring with them better air, predictable, increasingly lower customer pricing, and local job deployment opportunities.

Building electricity, heating, and cooling at the community-scale is, with transportation, the other major source of carbon emissions. Strategies will vary between single-family homes, multi-family residential housing, and commercial buildings. Conducting energy audits and using benchmarking is an excellent tool to drive efficiency. Incentive programs for energy upgrades can be done effectively the more buildings that participate.

Use strategies building resilience to threats of climate change in zoning, capital improvement, comprehensive planning, and hazard mitigation documents

One of the most important things local governments can do when it comes to addressing climate change is to prepare for its effects--severe storms, drought, flooding, heat waves and more. Local government is already pledged to provide for the health and safety of their residents from these hazards. Climate change will make them worse and understanding and accounting for what’s to come in existing official documents is part of that responsibility.

Natural Lands

Utility Sector

Aggregating demand for renewable energy with other actors

Encouraging more aggressive state renewable energy policies

Organization details

In his first term, Mayor Duggan got to work restoring basic city services for all Detroiters. He established the Department of Neighborhoods, placing staff in each of the seven city council districts to help residents address concerns of blight in their community. He also took an active role in projects that installed more than 60,000 new LED street lights to streets, some left in the dark for years, removed nearly 13,000 blighted and abandoned houses and dramatically improved police and EMS response times, bringing them down to the national average.

He also returned financial accountability, working with City Council to pass three consecutive balanced budgets in FY2015, FY2016 and FY2017, which led to significant upgrades in the City’s bond rating.

The mayor has continued to bring down blighted houses, laying out a plan to address all vacant structures over the next two years, whether through demolition, renovation or boarding them up in the interim. He also created Project Green Light, which partners with more than 300 Detroit businesses so far to provide real time, high definition video from the businesses to a new multi-million dollar Real Time Crime Center. Since the program was launched two years ago, major crimes at participating businesses has decreased by nearly 40%. Now in his second term and with city services back to levels Detroiters expect and deserve, Duggan has turned his attention to building “One Detroit for Everyone.” This mission of an equitable revitalization has included creating and preserving affordable housing, revitalizing long-neglected neighborhoods, and ensuring every Detroiter has access to jobs and job trainings through the Detroit at Work program.

Duggan’s vision for the redevelopment of Detroit is based on eight principles:

Everyone is welcome in our city
We won’t support a development if Detroiters are moved out so others can move into their homes
We will fight economic segregation – every area of Detroit will have a place for people of all incomes
Blight removal is critical – but we must save every house we can
We will work to build neighborhoods of density – where your daily needs can be met within walking distance of your home
Those who stayed will have an active voice in shaping their neighborhood’s redevelopment
Jobs and opportunities will be brought close to the neighborhoods whenever possible – and made available first to Detroiters
The Detroit Riverfront belongs to everyone

The city is governed pursuant to the Home Rule Charter of the City of Detroit. The city government is run by a mayor and a nine-member city council and clerk. Seven city council members are elected via district while two are elected at large. The mayor and clerk are elected in an at large election as well. Since voters approved the city's charter in 1974, Detroit has had a "strong mayoral" system, with the mayor approving departmental appointments. The council approves budgets but the mayor is not obligated to adhere to any earmarking. City ordinances and substantially large contracts must be approved by the council.[214] The Detroit City Code is the codification of Detroit's local ordinances.

The city clerk supervises elections and is formally charged with the maintenance of municipal records. Municipal elections for mayor, city council and city clerk are held at four-year intervals, in the year after presidential elections.[214] Following a November 2009 referendum, seven council members will be elected from districts beginning in 2013 while two will continue to be elected at-large.[215]

We Are Still In is as a joint declaration of support for climate action, signed by more than 3,500 CEOs, mayors, governors, college presidents, and others. The organizations they represent comprise the largest and most diverse coalition of actors ever established in pursuit of climate action.